Google Fiber for Communities website goes live
Google has announced on its blog that the website for its Fiber for Communities project is now live, bringing the ambitious high-speed internet project one step closer to reality.
The Google Fiber for Communities project was first announced in February 2010 with the remit of building ultra-high speed broadband fibre-to-the-home networks with a connection speed of one gigabit per second, which it says is 100 times faster than most US connections currently.
Focused on the US, the project hopes that it will be able to provide between 50,000 and 500,000 homes with the high-speed connection; the exact location of which community or communities will play host to the project has not yet been decided, but the company says that it will announce the chosen community by the end of 2010.
A company spokesperson told ZDNet UK that there are currently no plans to extend the project "beyond a small number of communities in the US".
In order to achieve its goals, the freshly launched Google Fiber for Communities website urges those involved to write letters of support to Congress relating to pending legislation that would require the installation of a fibre cable conduit in federally funded transportation projects.
Similarly, Google has also sketched out suggestions for city-sponsored road works that it says would help expedite works towards high-speed internet connections, which include each city creating a conduit plan as road works are carried out.
A Google spokesperson said that it is pursuing the scheme to "experiment with new ways to help make Internet access better and faster for everyone".
In offering the services to consumers and resellers, "Google will offer competitively priced, ultra high-speed Internet access service to residents of the chosen communities. In addition, we will allow third-parties to offer their own Internet access services, or other data services, on our open network," said a statement on its website, adding that it's too early to tell exactly how much it will cost.
During the original proposal Google asked local governments interested in the scheme to respond to a request for information, which would then help the company decide where to deploy first. Google says in a post on its blog that it received nearly 1100 government responses and 194,000 individual responses before the deadline passed.